The Power to Teach

Yesterday I wrote about the power that we hold as teachers—the power to affect our students’ lives in amazing ways. That reminded me of a poem I haven’t looked at in several years, so I dug it out to share with you. I hope it is as inspiring to you as it is to me!

The Power to Teach

I feel sometimes powerless and small overwhelmed and inadequate engulfed in thoughts and feelings that perhaps what I am doing is insignificant, that my life’s pursuit, that my teaching, is futile. And I say, “Who am I to change the world?” “Who am I to think that I can make a difference?”

And then I reflect on the young people under my charge, and I think about my role and about what power, if any, I have. To a great extent I determine the curriculum. And the richness and intensity with which it is taught is in my hands. And I have the ability to think and to plan and then to implement; to select from my repertoire of skills the best one suited to my purpose yet still able to adapt myself to student needs with the dexterity of an artisan.

Most adults would be fortunate to last out one day overseeing a roomful of kids. My orchestration makes enlightened music of the chaotic din. I guess you could say that is power!

And I can use my hands. Turned up to lift them up, or turned down to keep them down. And I have the power to lead my students places they did not know existed, to build them back up when society tears them down, to catapult them higher than I myself will ever reach, And to push them gently, but assuredly, in the unknown, painting for them in broad brush strokes a future I can never hope to see.

Every day I have the wherewithal in my classroom to build walls or to build bridges between the generations. And it is within my discretion to design a rigid, competitive structure or a cooperative, helping network in my classroom. I have an awesome power.

If I succeed I pass knowledge about what is important to the next generation. Mine is a present power and a future power. If I can reach the children of today, I touch the children of tomorrow.

Mine is a giving power. All that I know about the world and about how one learns about the world I must give. And in the giving of my gift I receive my greatest power: the power to teach my students to learn how to learn. Empowering them is of the essence, for if their teacher feels sometimes powerless and small, how insignificant must they sometimes feel?

And when the last day comes, and it is time for us to part, we gather together, say our good-byes and separate.

After that there is sadness but a certain contentment that I am sure only teachers feel. It is a happiness that comes from knowing that a part of us forever, transplanted, lives… no, thrives! inside of each individual who has gazed at us across tired brown desks and called us “Teacher.”

Even on a down day– when I’m feeling puny and insignificant– even then I try hard to remember that all it takes is one person just one person!– to make a difference in their lives.

And, there is no reason in the world that that person cannot and should not be me!